


The Brightest Star

by IcyStarlight



Series: Voltron Drabbles [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, M/M, Open Ending, Wow I'm crying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 19:19:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7544770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyStarlight/pseuds/IcyStarlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Wrong time, wrong place. That’s our story; a forbidden love full of silent words and a lost chance. But, even so, I’ll love you till the end of time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Brightest Star

When Shiro is announced to be the pilot of the Kerberos mission, Matt Holt tells Katie that this is going to be how he dies. Katie merely laughs at him and says that’s what you get for crushing on the best pilot in your garrison class. 

That’s some real helpful advice to help with the fact he’s going to be on the same ship as Shiro for ten months, on the same mission for two years, and — best of all— his dad is going to be there with them. How the heck is he supposed to do anything other than blush and stutter around Shiro when his dad is going to be there? 

Katie says that’s all he would end up doing anyways which earns her a smack upside the head. He tells her wait till they come back and he and Shiro are boyfriends. Then she can’t say anything about him stuttering and blushing anymore. 

At least that’s what he had thought before. After liftoff finally happened and he actually got time to talk to Shiro alone. All the time they spent sharing stories with the stars right there next to them. Well not literally, but it sounded poetic. 

Shiro had so many stories of his own. Matt could feel his feelings grow that much stronger with each one. Matt only had geek stories and stories about him and Katie doing stupid things for science. But Shiro would laugh every time and his smile was as bright as the stars. He never planned to fall in love so fast, but Shiro smiled and he blew it. There was just no escaping the pilot’s gravitational pull. 

His dad also loves Shiro, just not like he does. His dad loves Shiro for all his knowledge and eagerness to expand the space exploration program. Shiro laughs at all his dad’s embarrassing stories about him and if he wasn’t so upset with his dad about telling those stories his face would be redder than the sand on Mars. 

They map out the constellations and Matt maps them out again in Shiro’s eyes. He spends a night in the cockpit with Shiro, just as they’re passing by Neptune, and he finally tells Shiro how he feels. He expects rejection and awkward feelings but instead he gets a stuttered response of me too. Katie would laugh hysterically over the fact they were both stuttering, blushing messes in that moment. 

And he’s always dreamed of life beyond Earth. That they weren’t alone in the universe. He just hadn’t expected to find it like this, or rather, it finding them. Not in a million years. Shiro tells them to run but it’s too late. He can only stare dumbfounded and hold onto Shiro and his dad for dear life as they get sucked up by an alien ship. 

He doesn’t remember much of anything else till the point where he wakes up in a cell. His dad is gone. Shiro says they sent him to some labor camp or something. Matt doesn’t want to think about what that could mean for his dad in terms of what he knows about labor camps from Earth’s history. But Shiro, God Shiro is right here with him and that makes everything seem a little better already. He’s a million lightyears from home, prisoner aboard an alien ship, his dad is missing, but at least he’s not alone here. 

The other prisoners in their cell tell them what’s going on. What’s expected of them, what to do, how to survive, and about those who captured them. So for the most part the movies were wrong because hey, these aliens are pretty nice. The ones who captured them, the Galra, not so much. He honestly thinks they could survive like this. That is, till he gets told they’ll have to fight the gladiator. 

He’s so scared. God they pick him to go first and he freezes. His eyes meet Shiro’s and if they ever get to say goodbye, this is it right here. But Shiro, Shiro who jumps the guard, steals his weapon, and then attacks Matt. Shiro has different ideas. He’s taken away before he even knows if Shiro survived. He doesn’t doubt it. He knows Shiro won. Shiro had to have won. 

That’s all he has left. 

The feeble hope that somewhere, somewhere out in the universe, Shiro survived. 

So he works. He fights. He survives. The druids come for him. They want to know what makes him so strong despite the fact that he has nothing. Nothing to fight for, no freedom, no weapons, no pride. Why is he still going? Why hasn’t he died yet? They try to find an answer and Matt can’t even fight back because holy shit does it hurt. They poke and prod. They dig for answers and his mind feels more and more like soup with each passing second. Why is he still fighting? Why doesn’t he just give up already? What does he have left to fight for? 

A girl, a girl in a purple dress and a boy, a boy whose eyes held constellations. What are their names? Who are they? Why, why does it hurt so much? 

The druids give up and leave him alone. Tell him he’s only fighting for a delusion that one day he’ll gain his freedom. A part of him says they’re right. He’s been here for so long now. So long. Space wasn’t empty but hell, it felt like there was nothing out in this void of black. 

Who was he? Why was he here? Everything hurt all the time and if he could still see more than five feet in front of him, maybe he’d have a better idea. He only knew pain, darkness, work, and his dreams. Dreams of a blue sky and green grass where two figures would laugh together just beyond his view. A tall one and a shorter one. The boy and the girl. He wants to know who they are, but the druids told him that he can’t want anything. So he erases them from his mind. At least he tries. They haunt him and he thinks he’s going insane. Why can’t they just leave him alone? Just like the universe did. 

Sirens. He can hear sirens but no one knows what going on. Soldiers are running away and prisoners are trying to escape. He’s not though, why would he even try? It’s not like he has anywhere else to go. But there’s someone coming at him. Someone in a white suit that reminds him of a moon somewhere far away. One that wasn’t so cold. It’s got black on it too. There’s a voice yelling at him. A voice that calls him Matt. Is he Matt? The voice calls themselves Shiro. 

Shiro. He knows Shiro. Oh God Shiro. He’s clutching on for dear life again, but he’s no longer scared. No longer terrified. No longer alone. Shiro hugs back full force and then sets him down. Tells him to follow, but he can’t. He can’t follow. He doesn’t know if that sound was a siren or himself but it makes Shiro stop dead in his tracks and Matt doesn’t need his eyesight to know what Shiro’s face looks like right now. He’s worn the same expression before. Except this time, he’s the one getting left behind. 

Yet there’s a hand clutching his and they’re running towards the freedom Matt no longer even dreamed of. He doesn’t have to think about whether or not they’ll make it. He knows they will. Just like he knew Shiro didn’t die. 

There’s something about lions and wars or something but the only other thing Matt can really process when he and Shiro are escaping is that he hears Katie’s voice. Maybe he would never get to see a blue sky again. But freedom, freedom felt like the rush of “me too” and laughing because yet another experiment blew up in their faces. He knows only the smile on his face as his world fades into black because space is vast. A void that’s cold and unforgiving. Yet it seems just a little better, knowing that he’s not alone.

He wakes up to the blue sky. A blue sky and the warm feeling next to him that tells him he’s not alone. Katie. That’s Katie’s face but the person says that they’re not Katie. They say that they’re Pidge but they know Katie really well. He asks if Katie’s okay and Pidge tells him that she is. Pidge says they missed him so much and even with soup for brains he knows that voice. He knows where Katie is. He tells Pidge to thank Shiro for looking out for them, for keeping his little sis safe. He can feel a few drops on his face, but he knows it’s not raining. 

He asks where Shiro is and Pidge says Shiro went to get help, to just hang on a little longer. That he’s going to be okay and that they have so much to tell him about everything. That together with others Shiro and them are fighting to save the universe and he’s always known that Shiro would get along with his sibling. But he knows the chances of him hanging on are slim and if being a geek taught him anything, it’s that probability never worked in your favor. He asks Pidge to take a message for him to Shiro. Pidge flicks his nose and tells him to tell Shiro himself dammit, he’s going to survive this. 

The ground shakes beneath his head, but it’s not seismic activity. He knows that one day he’ll see Shiro again. That if their first goodbye wasn’t really goodbye, then neither would this one be. So he takes his little sibling’s hand and tells them all he wants Shiro to know, all he wants them to know. He thinks that this goodbye, is a little less like goodbye this time. But he knows, he can’t stop the sobs wracking his already weak body, he knows that this time he no longer has to worry about the ones he’s leaving behind.

 

Hey Shiro, 

I know you’ll probably want to kill me when Pidge gives this to you but at that point I don’t think you’ll be able to. I used to dream of meeting you again. Of us going back to Earth and meeting the rest of my family, but it seems that you’re one step ahead of me as always. Pidge told me all about your Voltron adventures. Thank you, for taking care of them. I don’t have enough words to thanks you honestly, for everything. 

Remember in final mission prep when you were trying to impress my dad and you spilled potentially hazardous chemicals all over the front of his flight suit? Honestly I think that’s one of the first times I realized how much I liked you. I never planned to fall in love, but you smiled and I blew it. I can’t wait to see you again. Pidge says you do better laser sound effects than them and I know what theirs sound like so honestly I’m a little scared. I want you two to take care of each other ya hear me? All of you, that included your paladin friends I haven’t met yet. Wallop Zarkon’s ass good for me ya hear. I have, I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll be able to beat him. Be the heroes I always knew you were. Of all the stars in the universe you’ve always shined the brightest so make sure, make sure you never give up okay? Because I never gave up on you. This isn’t a goodbye.

I just wanted to let you know, that the vast reaches of space are cold and there’s barely anything out here, but not being alone, makes it just a little better.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Did anyone ask for this? Nope. Did I ask for this? Nope. Yet here we are, suffering. Next time, next time i will write something happy dammit.


End file.
